Creativity Sucks & Innovations for Nerds!!

creativity sucks!

innovation’s for nerds!

everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

-Hugh MacLeod

“…then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the 'creative bug' is just a wee voice telling you, 'I'd like my crayons back, please.” "

-Hugh MacLeod,

can one learn to be

creative?

That combination of thought and action defines creative confidence: the ability to come up with new ideas and the courage to try them out.

-David & Tom Kelly, Creative Confidence

is there such thing as writers block?

The  War  of  Art    

Your best thought comes embedded in chunks of your worst thought.

-Mark Levy, The Accidental Genius

does creativity just come to you?

get out a piece of paper

how to be creative

1. stop trying to be right

If everyone tells you it is a good idea, run the other way.

-Jay Rogers, Local Motors

host a “bad idea” session

but remember,

no one likes a know it all

2. find your

super power

“A great company is more likely to die of indigestion from too much opportunity than starvation from too little.” -Packard’s Law

never say no to panda.

3. practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice

at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what’s happening to us, and our lives

become controlled by fate. that’s the world’s greatest lie.

-paulo coelho, the alchemist

but jeph, i’m not talented at anything I can’t be successful!

the talent myth

Mark Cuban

Michael Phelps

there are no prodigies just people who practice more

than others

1. stop trying to be right 2. find your super power 3. practice, practice, practice

innovation

the pope’s inauguration

you want to start a

business?

we don’t need an

expensive credit card terminal

you don’t need to hire

people

you don’t need a building or pay for an entire

office

we don’t need a

taxi

we don’t need to stay at a

hotel

we don’t have to go to a

restaurant

our world has

changed

so what is

innovation?

there are only two types of businesses "

the cost leader and the differentiator. Nothing else.

-michael porter

when you’re innovating,

you’re like david.

vs

being the

underdog is a

good thing.

innovative companies?

these companies were all started in

economic downturns: Disney CNN MTV Hyatt Burger King FedEx

Microsoft Apple Texas Instrument 20th Century Fox Gillette AT&T IBM Merck Hershey’s Eli Lilly Coors Bristol-Myers

great ideas alter the power balance in relationships. that’s why great ideas are initially resisted.

–Hugh MacLeod

have you made someone feel

awesome today?

life’s too short not to have fun.

www.strategylab.ca @jephmaystruck jephmaystruck@gmail.com